re: The ATL Thread: 2021 World Champion Atlanta Braves Offseason Thread

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Give that man whatever he wants. I appreciate the business side of things, but if LAD or NYY want to offer him 6, we better damn well do the same thing because he's earned it. That man should never don another uniform unless it's an All Star uniform.

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I'm in this camp 100%. Give him 6/$180m and be done with it. Front load the deal if you have to. He's earned every penny of it. Was here through the rebuild and signed a team friendly deal which he outperformed, won MVP, and brought the franchise a WS Championship. If he's not deserving of it, no one is.

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Give that man whatever he wants. I appreciate the business side of things, but if LAD or NYY want to offer him 6, we better damn well do the same thing because he's earned it. That man should never don another uniform unless it's an All Star uniform.

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Spot on - this isn't one-year rental Josh Donaldson and rightfully not giving him 4 years after a decent season.
Plus - you'll have club options in the last year to retain Acuna and Albies at a total of $24 million. You have money to play with in Year 6.

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He wants to be back, he’s made that clear.

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I want to stay where I'm at, too. But if somebody offers me double my salary, I wouldn't blame my current company if I left.

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Letting Fredward walk over a 6th year right after finally winning the World Series

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I’d give him a 6th year without question—his swing will prevent him from falling off a cliff. He’ll still be a really good hitter in 6 years—he may still be an All-Star. However, I think winning the World Series changes the calculus, but not just for the organization, for Freddie himself. It gives him an “out” with the fans that he didn’t have before.

They did it—they won the damn thing—other things that may not have been quite as important before are now. Maybe he wants to make as much money as possible so his great grandkids will never have to work. Maybe his wife loves Los Angeles and wants to get into the entertainment industry. Or maybe her sister lives there. Parents. Or they want to be able to their kids to Disneyland every day in the summer before going to watch Daddy play at night. Or maybe Freddie grew up wanting to don the Yankee pinstripes, to have his number retired in Yankee Stadium next to Mickey Mantles’s. Or maybe he’s thinking HOF and knows as a 1st baseman he’s got to get over 400 home runs, and with 129 left to go, that short right field porch seems pretty appealing.

My point—that the Boat more than anybody on here seems to forget—is that Freddie Freeman is a human being. So is his wife. Their children. Their families. All real life human beings. Freddie’s not merely an avatar on your tv that represents the digital 1s and 0s of his statistics in the lineup on a given day or over the course of a season, how they affect the other players in the lineup, the overall success of the team, and how that success ultimately affects YOUR happiness (or usually lack there of). He’s a human being. A free man (if you’ll excuse the pun). With free will. And winning the World Series could have given him and his family even more freedom as it likely assuages them of whatever guilt they might have had leaving Atlanta without winning a World Series.

Again, I want him back. Hell, with the DH coming to the NL, I’d probably give him
a 7th year if that’s what it took. The combination of his size/leverage, short to the ball, explosive, repeatable, gap-to-gap swing, his discipline and patience at the plate, understanding of his strike zone, overall professionalism, etc…will play for significantly longer than a typical 1B. Even a HOF one. And I can’t see him pulling a Pujols and embarrassing himself at the end of his career just to collect fat checks.

BUT, if he leaves, it does not necessarily mean AA is the antichrist and “frick the Braves!” and whatever other hateful nonsense will spewed on here. It may just mean a human being—with infinitely more data than any of us on what he actually wants, what’s important to him and his family—made a choice. A choice that he—and almost certainly his parents—has worked his arse off for 25+ years to put himself in a position to be able to make.

Bowman also thinks Soroka will never be the same.

I disagree completely. He'll be back to form sooner than later. If he was 33 instead of 23 it'd be different.

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Bowman also thinks Soroka will never be the same.

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Odds are very high he’s right.

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I disagree completely. He'll be back to form sooner than later

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Well, you’re an idiot. And this is based almost entirely on hope.

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If he was 33 instead of 23 it'd be different.

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I’d actually feel better if he was 33 and had had zero history of injury until this. Then we’d know it was just atrocious luck. Now, though there was still atrocious luck, it appears his body is just not built to withstand the grind of a 162-game season professional baseball career. Now, as fans, it’s fine for us to be hopeful idiots. But I don’t think the organization can count on him being this huge physical outlier that overcomes 2 ruptured Achilles by age 23 to come back and be the ace of a championship staff. I think they have to operate like he’ll never throw another pitch in an Atlanta uniform ever again. If he gives you ANYTHING, it’s lagniappe. But you can’t make any plans based on the assumption he’ll ever get another out.

Well this is interesting:

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Jayson Stark

@jaysonst

Some details emerging on how the expanded playoffs will work: * No more Game 163 tiebreakers. All playoff spots will be determined through NFL-type tiebreaker formulas. * No re-seeding for the LDS. 1st seed plays winner of 4 vs. 5 Wild Card Series. 2nd seed plays 3 vs 6 winner.

5:16 PM · Mar 10, 2022

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And then there's this:

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Jon Morosi

@jonmorosi

Source: Prior to lockout, #Braves had detailed conversations with free agent Justin Verlander. He ultimately returned to Houston, but this indicates that the Braves are trying to fit a high-level starter *and* Freddie Freeman into their budget. @MLBNetwork @MLB

7:27 AM · Mar 11, 2022

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Plus I would wager Freddie’s offensive game will age like fine wine even as his power slips later in age, and with the DH coming in, it feels like a no brainer.

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Universal DH makes this such a no brainer. Just pay the man his damn money. Like others are saying ITT Freddie spent YEARS waiting for the Braves to build around him, and was always willing to help the team with his deals.

He just went MVP and World Series in back to back years. He is Chipper for the new generation of Braves fans. Pay him and let him finish where he needs to finish. The window is wide open with the pieces we have, so it's not crazy to think we can win another title or two if things fall the right way for us again.

Unless he's asking for over 200MIL. Then I would shake his hand and wish him well b/c you can't have one player taking up that much of the payroll if you wanna remain fiscally responsible and field a competitive team.

But yeah do all you can to sign him. But we also know AA never shows his hand and he lets his FA's test the market and then he makes the final offer. He doesn't bet against himself.